Regensburg 2004 – scientific programme

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O: Oberflächenphysik

O 32: Nanostrukturen III

O 32.8: Talk

Thursday, March 11, 2004, 13:00–13:15, H38

Chiral one-dimensional structure formation of di-L-Phenylalanine (Phe-Phe) on Cu(110) — •Thomas Classen, Frank Stadler, Giovanni Costantini und Klaus Kern — Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung Stuttgart, Heisenbergstr 1, 70569 Stuttgart

Amino acids are at the heart of many biological processes. Furthermore, they also represent some of the most basic chiral molecules. An investigation of amino acids on metal single crystal surfaces therefore allows not only a linking of surface science to elemental biological building blocks but also opens perspectives for enantioselective catalysis on metal surfaces.

While the adsorption of simple amino acids on various metal surfaces has already been studied, only few investigations exist on the deposition of larger amino acid based compounds under the highly controlled conditions allowed by an ultra high vacuum environment. The next step in an increasing hierarchy of complexity are dipeptides consisting of two amino acids with two chiral centers. In the presented work we have investigated sub-monolayer coverages of di-L-Phenylalanine (Phe-Phe) on Cu(110). The chiral adhesion geometry of the resulting 1-dimensional nanostructures could be proven by means of variable temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy (VT-STM). Chirality is shown to be reflected not only in the individual molecule adhesion geometry but also in the intermolecular binding and the 1D-structure formation.